


The Storyteller's Puppeteer

by Nekia



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: M/M, Witchcraft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-24
Updated: 2020-06-24
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:34:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24885415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nekia/pseuds/Nekia
Summary: Phil is a storyteller known for his whimsical stories, charming characters and plenty of action. Unbeknownst to him, a kind of magic has brought his stories to life. Enter Dan, a puppeteer mastered in the art of black magic. Dan had always worked in the shadows, a feared member of the village. However, now Dan and Phil must work together to bring a finish to Phil's beloved stories.
Relationships: Dan Howell/Phil Lester
Comments: 5
Kudos: 9





	The Storyteller's Puppeteer

‘ _Ughh I know I should at least finish this scene, but if my bed isn’t calling my name…_ ’ Phil thought as he reread the sentence he wrote.

Phil sighed as he put down his pencil and massaged his hands. He looked out the window to the darkness of outside, his desk being lit up by candlelight. Ideas just weren’t coming to him as fast as they used to and now every story was such a struggle to write, but for the village, for the happiness and faces of wonder he saw every time he told a story, all the effort was absolutely worth it. Phil was always too awkward to ask for a break so he just kept writing story after story and trying desperately to meet the deadlines.

“Maybe after a night’s rest and some tea in the morning, some inspiration will come to me… hopefully.” He said to himself as he prepared himself for bed. 

Phil was the village storyteller. He would come up with whimsical stories of fantasy and action, mostly with people possessing special powers they would use to fight monsters and demons. Most stories were short stories that only had one chapter, but sometimes he would leave a few on a cliffhanger and continue the story another day. His latest story, however, was proving difficult to write. Nothing was giving him inspiration. 

All day, Phil was trying his usual tricks to gain inspiration, drinking some tea while sitting outside his house in the morning, taking a walk through the village, chatting with some of the locals along the way, taking a break in the forest and just admiring the beauty of nature, going through the cool, serene lake near the village just as the sun was setting. But none of them worked, Phil felt like he kept writing just absolute nonsense on a page in his beloved notebook.

Pulling the covers over him, Phil let out a sigh and said quietly to himself, "Please brain, give me at least something to work with tomorrow."

That night, Phil dreamed. He dreamed of someone... or something. A humanoid figure in a black cloak and their hands seemed to be glowing, but not with light. With darkness. The figure raised his hand and pointed towards Phil, but it seemed to be in slow motion. Phil couldn't tell what the hooded figure was trying to say or show, but he just felt compelled to turn around and even that felt like it was going in slow motion. What he saw was only a glimpse of some monster ready to pounce on him. Something that looked feline in nature, but with that glimpse, he could only focus on the body, not much of the expression on the creature. That was when everything went black.

But when Phil woke up, he took a second to remember the dream and realized that this was his inspiration. He smiled and hopped out of bed and grabbed his notebook and started writing everything he could remember. While writing, he whispered quietly to himself, "Thank you brain."

After writing everything down, he got ready for the day, while thinking of all the possible stories he could write with this new information. 

"Maybe some irritated creature that's half tiger, half eagle? No, that wouldn't work. That'd be too much like The Griffin and the creature didn't have wings in my dreams."

"Was it going to pounce at the figure? But then why did it seem like the figure was trying to warn me? Ehh maybe it wasn't trying to warn me at all. Perhaps just casting a spell."

"The hooded figure did look like some kind of sorceress. Maybe I could base that character off of someone I know?"

With that thought, Phil set out to go talk to some of the villagers roaming around. He's based a ton of characters in his stories from the people around. They all are incredibly flattered when Phil asks if he can create a character based on them and super excited to hear the story once it's finished. But Phil's based so many characters on practically every villager, so it seemed like finding someone suitable was going to be a little difficult. But Phil was determined. Pushing yourself when you have no inspiration to go off of was always a pain, but he's learned to never let an opportunity such as a burst of inspiration go to waste.

Phil knew that the hooded figure couldn't be a child, so he asked some of his friends to see if anyone, adult or teenager, could be a fit for this sorcerer. His brother Martin had left the village a few months ago and he knew practically everyone, so he wasn't going to be any help, but Chris, his childhood best friend, did offer a few options. Haru and Lou were probably good candidates, always wanting to be different from everyone. Wearing darker clothing, saying weird words that sounded like gibberish to scare people and practically never spending anytime outside during the day.

But just in case there was someone better that he, for some reason, didn't know about, Phil went to PJ, who was essentially the village craftsmen. PJ has always been a jack of all trades, creating things for the others in the village. Paintings, sculptures, clothes, stylized tools for all of the workers and recently has been practicing music. If anyone has seen everyone in the village, it'd be PJ.

"Hey PJ. How's everything been?"

"Oh hi Phil, everything's been pretty good. Long time no see, you've been stuck in your hut for who knows how long, right?" PJ said with a chuckle.

"Yea yea, finding inspiration for my new stories haven't been the best, until now anyways. I need your help with something."

"Of course. Anything for my biggest inspiration."

PJ always said that Phil's stories inspired him to create something new or learn a new skill. It was always very rewarding and Phil was amazed to see that PJ has become incredibly skilled because of his stories so in a way, they've kept each other going with their own crafts.

"I need help with a character. Essentially, I want this person to be a sorcerer of some kind. Dark and mysterious. Do you know anyone like that? Chris already mentioned Lou and Haru, but I wanted to see if there was anyone else, just in case."

PJ thought for a moment, before his eyes lit up.

"I think I know exactly who you'd want to talk to, but I'm not sure he'd be so willing to talk to you."

"Well who is it?"

"You know Dan?"

Phil was confused, "The outcast? Why would I want to talk to him?"

"Well do you know why he became an outcast? Not many people talk about him but a few of the older ones say it's because he's been practicing the Dark Arts. You know, black magic."

Phil was taken aback. Everyone knew about Dan, but not everyone knew exactly why he was an outcast. He came to the village every once in a while, but it seemed only for food and water.

"He comes around to request simple things, like a sculpture or a drawing, but no one has any real evidence that he was practicing the Dark Arts. So I'm not scared of him and I'm perfectly fine. I don't talk about my meetings with him though, so as not to give people any more reason to spread rumors."

"And people still talk to you? I figured no one would since… you know."

"Well that's why I don't say anything. Nobody really knows I've been creating things for him.”

“You’re not his evil apprentice, are you?” Phil said, jokingly.

PJ laughed, “You wish, Lester. But in all seriousness, are you going to try and go talk to him? I don’t think he’d be so kind to someone from the village.”

Phil was hesitant. Dan sounded like the perfect guy to base his character on, but what if everything about him was true? Was he really willing to take that risk?

Phil let out a sigh, "Where does he live?"

  
  


\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Phil looked out at the vast lake near the village. According to PJ, Dan lived east of the lake and after confirming multiple times that east meant right of the lake, Phil ventured out with his notebook and pencil in hand.

Phil breathed in and let out a sigh, "Oh stars above, I hope I don't get lost. PJ knows I'm bad with directions... Keep it together, Phil. You'll be fine."

Phil started his trek through the forest, east of the lake. ' _Just keep going straight, you’ll see a river, follow it upstream and you'll be fine. You won't be lost._ ' Phil repeated in his head.

After a few minutes of walking and saying his mantra, Phil started to think about the monster he saw in his dream. He couldn't put a name to it, but it was just a monster. ' _Was it even feline?_ ' Phil realized it was getting harder and harder to picture the beast. He wrote down everything he could, but Phil always liked having a visual in his head and if he couldn't picture it anymore, then he would just have to think of a new monster, which he really didn't want to do.

Phil had been walking for about 10 minutes until he started to see what looked to be a stone cottage, not too far away. "Oh thank stars, I was hoping I wasn't going in circles." Phil took a deep breath and started walking again towards the cottage. 

‘ _It seems like nobody knows what Dan is really like. No even PJ, for all I know, he could try to kill me on the spot… I really hope he isn’t dangerous._ ’ Phil thought, nervously.

Phil finally reached the front door of the cottage. For something like this being built by one person, it didn’t seem too bad. The pattern of the stones made the home look kind of cozy and it had a few small windows, which was probably PJ’s work. The little home also had something that looked like a chimney and the roof seemed to be secured with moss and wood, so the weather conditions didn’t tear it apart.

Phil hesitated before knocking on the wooden door. ‘ _No turning back now._ ’

It took a minute for Phil to hear something, but that minute felt like centuries. All he heard was a stern “Who’s there?”

“Uhh... my name’s Phil and… I-uh just wanted to ask about you… Uhh no! I mean-uh just talk to you… that’s all.” Phil said shakily. He hadn’t realized just how nervous he was until he tried to talk.

The door creaked, opening slightly. Phil took a step back, not knowing what was happening.

“You just want to talk? Is that right? How do you know where I live?” The voice said, bitterly.

“Y-yes, just talk. PJ… the craftsmen told me where to find you. Um… you’re Dan, right?”

He could hear a muffled _“Freakin PJ.”_ The door opened a little wider. Phil could start to see a little bit of Dan’s face, shielded by the shadows.

“No, I’m the freaking sugar fairy. Yes I’m Dan and I’m sure you’re here to talk. To humiliate me, right? To curse my name in every way possible, yea? I’ve seen plenty of young ones say they want to talk and then they just torment me with their words.” Dan said, voice getting louder and more bitter with every sentence.

Phil was shocked. He had no idea that so many kids did that to him. Phil was always someone who believed that you should get to know a person before you judge them and even then, he would never resort to violence.

“No Dan, absolutely not… But I suppose you’ve heard that before a million times.” Phil sighs and takes a deep breath.

“I’m a storyteller. I’ve been having trouble lately writing my stories, so I wanted to talk to you so that I could create a character based on you. Just ask you questions on your personality, things you do in your day to day life. That’s all. But I can understand if you don’t want to.”

Dan paused and thought about what he said. He remembered hearing about someone who frequently told stories, he was curious about what kind of character Phil wanted to create based off of him. But remembering bad experiences with the village, he went straight with some vile creature.

“So I suppose I’m your villain then, huh? Some monstrous being that wants destruction?”

“What?! No, not at all. In fact… quite the opposite. I wanted you to be my main character. The hero.” Phil said quickly.

“While I write a lot of stories about mythical creatures and action and fantasy, I’ve strangely never written about someone that would possess… uhh magic abilities.”

Dan finally opened his door fully. Phil looked Dan up and down. Dan had on a simple black leather tunic combined with mesh, black pants and simple shoes. His gloomy look complimented the slight scowl on his face.

“Ahh there it is. That’s what this is all about. You want me to perform some magic tricks for you? Just show you that I can hold fire in my hands? Or maybe destroy that giant rock behind you?” Dan said sarcastically.

Phil sighed. He could understand that Dan had had some bad experiences with the other villagers, but honestly this constant negativity was a little exhausting. _‘Just how bad were the others?’_

“Look... that’s not what I do. I don’t tease or mock or bully. If anything, I’m intrigued by your personality. I apologize if I misspoke, I just want to ask some questions about you. Just you. Those magic abilities the character will have, I can create on my own.” Phil said confidently.

Dan looked thoughtful. He leaned against the door frame and crossed his arms, seemingly contemplating the whole thing. 

Dan rubbed his hand over his face and sighed, “Alright… you can ask a few questions, but if I don’t like them, you’re out, understand?”

Phil smiled and nodded, “Of course, understood.”

Dan walked out of his house and pointed to a little sitting area on the side of his house that Phil didn’t notice when he was coming in. It was simple, only a small wooden table with two big, grey, flat rocks on either side of it. He gestured for Phil to sit on one of the rocks before taking a seat on the other.

Phil put his notebook on the table and opened up to a page in the back where he had some questions already written down. Once he took one more look at the questions, he looked up at Dan and noticed he was staring at his notebook with a look he couldn’t describe. Maybe fear? Intrigue? Confusion? A mix of all? Phil couldn’t tell.

“Um ok, so what would you say your day to day outfit is?”

“Honestly, you’re looking right at it.”

“Perfect.” Phil wrote quickly what Dan was wearing and moved on to the next question.

“What do you do when you first wake up in the morning?” 

Dan shifted in his seat. “Ohh uhh…”

Phil gave a confused look until… “Oh. Oh! No! Uhh that’s not exactly what I meant.”

Dan’s face started turning red. “Wait what? No! That’s not what I meant. I just had trouble putting it into words, that’s all. Stars on a boat, Phil.”

Phil wanted the ground to swallow him up whole for thinking that sort of thing. Usually he tries to stay innocent for the children in the village, but he’s still an adult and sometimes people misinterpret and jump to conclusions.

“Oh shine a light… I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to think about it like that. But uhh… what did you want to say?”

Dan huffed out a breath. “I usually do some stretches and warm up my voice by saying some… random things.”

Phil desperately needed to stop thinking about the awkward moment that just happened and he wanted to know what Dan said for his warm ups, but if he was uncomfortable with it, then he wouldn’t press further. While writing Dan’s answer, he made a note to just put in some random words that would make the people laugh.

“If you had to wield a weapon, what weapon would you choose?” Phil asked.

Dan’s eyebrows raised up at this question, “Well that’s quite a contrast to your last few questions.”

Phil didn’t know if that was a good thing, but he saw what seemed to be a slight smile on Dan’s face so he guessed that it was alright.

“Honestly, I think I would just use my hands.”

“Really? Your bare hands?” Phil said, surprised.

“Even if you had to go against a monster or had to go on a quest?”

Dan huffed out a small laugh. “Yea, I think I could take on whatever comes my way.”

“Interesting.” Phil said.

_‘Make sure to write his character as confident.’_ Phil thought, writing it down in his notebook.

“Alright, so if you were to, hypothetically, have a partner in a fight, how would you act around them?”

“Damn… alright this requires some thought.” Dan said.

“Is that more thought than you’ve had in your lifetime?” Phil said, jokingly. But as soon as it came out of Phil’s mouth, he regretted it. He never wanted to make fun of Dan, but he was so used to cracking jokes like that with his friends that it just slipped out.

Dan looked at him, shocked, but not angry. Then he burst out laughing. “Alright alright, that one was good, you got me.”

Phil sighed internally, relieved that he didn’t piss Dan off. Although, he did quickly tell Dan that he didn’t mean to say it, that that’s how he joked around with his friends. Dan wasn’t mad and he thanked Phil for the laugh, saying that it had been a while since he's genuinely laughed. After calming down a little bit, Dan gave his answer.

“If I had a partner in a fight. Well that would depend on the person themselves, what’s the personality of this hypothetical partner? If they were calm and thought of a plan, I might have trouble working with them. I really like to do my own thing and do it without thinking. If they were just as impulsive as me and they had some good ideas, I could maybe see working with them. Might be fun, you know?”

“Huh, I hadn’t thought about that kind of thing. Thank you, that was honestly super interesting to hear.” Phil said, furiously writing down Dan’s answers to the personalities that he mentioned.

_‘At least now I have some options when it comes to writing his partner.’_ Phil thought.

Phil started to smile, he had gotten a lot more information and now he had a lot more ideas to write this character based on Dan, but he did want more. Those were more or less specifics in action scenes, he wanted to have a little backstory to the character and show a few more scenes showcasing his personality, but Phil didn’t want to push his luck with Dan. Although, it would never hurt to ask.

“Umm, so Dan. Thank you so much for the answers, I really appreciate it, I have a more clear picture in mind for this character, but… there are a few more questions I want to ask, so I can write the personality a little bit better. Of course, if it’s ok with you, I could always come back if you’re busy or something.” Phil rambled.

_‘Stars, Phil. Don’t you ever shut up?’_ Phil thought.

Dan looked a little apprehensive, but gave a smirk. “Well… you don’t seem terribly boring and you have been pretty nice. I might answer a few more questions depending on what they are, but not today. I have some things I need to take care of. Come back tomorrow, if you want.”

Phil practically lit up inside. He was thanking every star above that he made a good impression on Dan. “Uh yea, I’ll come back tomorrow. Thanks again, like really. This means a lot to me and like… thank you!” Phil said, excitedly.

Dan just shrugged and gave a little wave. “Yea yea, don’t mention it.”

Just as Phil was closing his notebook and making sure he didn’t lose any pages, Dan stood up, facing away from Phil.

“Listen Phil. I’m only going to say this once. If you ever think about telling anyone from the village, aside from PJ, you met and talked to me, I swear I will not let you near my home again. Do you understand me?” He said, with a seriousness that was practically terrifying.

“Y-yes Dan, I understand completely. I promise you, I won’t tell another soul.” Phil said, nerves coming back.

“Good, because I promise you that you will regret it.”

Phil stood up as Dan turned back to face him. Phil stuck out his hand and Dan tentatively shook it, with Phil noting that Dan’s hand was pretty cold. 

_‘That could always be a character trait.’_

“Well uh.. I'll see you tomorrow Dan. Have a good day.”

“Yea… you too.”

\-----------------------------------------------

As Phil walks away from Dan’s cottage and finds the river to head back home, he replays a lot of what happened, the events not fully sinking in yet.

“That could have gone so much worse…” Phil says, breathing a sigh of relief.

He walked a little further before the weight of what just happened fully hit him. Phil sat down next to the river to just breathe and collect his thoughts. He actually talked to Dan and somehow didn’t make too much of a fool of himself, also managing to get some inspiration based on the answers Dan gave.

Phil leaned over to look at himself in the water reflection. “Not bad, Phil. Now let’s hope I don’t screw everything up tomorrow.”

He reached out to scoop some water and splash it on his face to calm himself down a little. After drying his face with his shirt, he looked back into the river and noticed some movement. Phil stood still and lightly focused his eyes on the water to notice any movement and after a few seconds, he saw what looked like a crab’s leg move up and down, as if changing positions.

“Aww, are you a little crab friend?”

The crab then started to move towards the edge of the river and clawed its way up onto the grassy land. Phil clutched his notebook and moved back so as to not frighten the crab, but as he got a better look at it, he noticed that something was off with the crab.

The legs seemed much longer than a normal crab, its eyes were yellow and it seemed to have strange blue markings on its red shell. Even the way the crab moved seemed strange. It wasn’t walking from side to side like a normal crab, it was looking and moving around as if it was any other sea creature.

_‘Wait a minute. We don’t get river crabs in this part of the land, how did one get here from the ocean?’_

At that thought, he decided to stand up and circle the crab carefully, as it was lying still to look at the markings on its shell. The marking looked like an uppercase K with another marking to the left of it, almost like the symbol used for an angle. Phil paused, a wave of familiarity went through him.

_‘Why do I feel like I know this symbol? Why does this crab look familiar? It’s a crab, how is that possible?’_

The crab finally started moving again and it seemed as if it was trying to look at Phil with its yellow eyes. As he was staring into the crab’s eyes, he heard what sounded the voice of Lou from the village from behind him.

_“Crab… Friend…”_

At that moment, it dawned on Phil why the crab looked so familiar. He had written about this crab being a type of monster that travels in packs in one of his stories, he created the crabs. But then once he remembered all of the details of the crabs, he froze, a chill going up his spine and his eyes going wide in fear.

These crabs were incredibly agile, with pincers sharp as a knife and a grip that could crush bones if they were big enough. They also used mimicry to trick their prey into being confused so they could attack, killing them and eventually eating them over a period of days.

Without thinking, Phil stood up and started running back towards Dan’s cottage, keeping his notebook tightly in his hands. He needed a way to defend himself and right now, Dan is the human nearest to him who could probably help him.

“Dan! Dan! Dan, please help me!” He screamed, hoping that Dan heard him.

From behind him, he could hear the chants of the crab pack in different, but familiar voices, voices from the village. The fact that he knew those were just the crabs terrified him even more.

_“Dan… help me… Dan… crab… friend…”_

Phil sprinted to the front door and practically pounded on it, in hopes that Dan was actually at home. Phil turned back to see at least 5 other crabs, crawling in a formation getting ready to corner Phil and attack him.

“Dan! Please! Help me!” Phil screamed, hitting the door as hard as he could.

Panic and fear was all Phil could feel. He didn’t know what else to do, didn’t know where else to run. He was terrified that this is how he was going to die, he couldn’t remember how he wrote the story or how the characters in the story defeat the crabs. Phil could feel tears welling up in his eyes and he started to think about those that he loved. Phil slumped down into a ball against the door and hid his face in his knees, he could start to hear the crabs getting closer and closer to him. They were starting to grip his pants, hoping to cut into it to reach his skin and Phil let out a sob, finally realizing that he was going to die.

_“Dan… friend… help…”_ The crabs said, mockingly.

All of a sudden, he could feel something forcing the crabs away.

“Phil! Get out of there!”

Phil looked up from his knees and saw Dan standing a few meters away from the house. He got up and sprinted towards Dan, running straight into his arms.

“Woah Phil… wait get off and get behind me, they’re not dead.”

Phil let go of him and turned around to see the crabs coming back, their yellow eyes determined to kill.

As he went behind Dan, he looked confused and said, “Wait, what are you going to do? You can’t take them on your own Dan, you don’t know what these are.”

It wasn’t until Phil looked down that he saw Dan’s clenched fists glowing black and purple-ish. Dan tried his best to look focused on keeping the crabs away, but there was clear hesitation and worry on his face. 

“Dan…”

“Look we’ll talk about this later, for right now, just let me try to get rid of them.”

The crabs started to crawl closer and closer towards the two, but Dan opened up one of his hands and seemed to have cast a spell to push the crabs back.

“I don’t understand, why aren’t you destroying them? They’re going to kill us, Dan”

“It’s not exactly the easiest thing in the world, Phil. To cast a spell to destroy.” Dan said, slightly annoyed.

“Oh… sorry”

“It’s fine, I’m just trying to figure out how the hell I’m going to get these out of here.”

Phil suddenly remembered that the crabs came from his story, a story that he knows has a way to defeat them.

“Dan, keep pushing them back. I think I know how to fix this, just give me a second.”

“Whatever you say, Phil. Just make it quick, I can’t keep doing it forever.”

Phil flipped back and forth between the pages of his notebook frantically to try and find where he wrote the story.

“Oh stars… Ok! I found it!” Phil exclaimed.

Skimming through the story, Phil remembers that these creatures are hard to kill. The shells are incredibly tough and they can use a salve that they produce themselves to heal each other. They’d need a powerful explosion to kill them, but if Dan can’t create that to destroy the crabs, then the least they could do is distract them… Distract them with another human perhaps? Or something that looks and sounds, exactly like another human?

“Dan! Could you create something that looks like a human?”

Dan looks at Phil, surprised, “What? Something that looks human? What for?”

“To distract them. You said it yourself, you can’t destroy them, so why not distract them long enough for us to get away?”

Dan casts the spell to push the crabs away again, then turns his head to look at Phil again. There’s some apprehension on his face, like he’s not sure that trusts Phil with what he’s saying.

“Please Dan. I know it sounds crazy, but for right now, it’s the only way.”

Dan sighs then looks at the crabs coming again, still determined to kill the two. “Alright fine.”

Dan pushes the crabs one more time, then closes his eyes and concentrates on casting a spell that will create an illusion of a human, a puppet, his hands glowing with a dark aura. A few seconds later, standing in front of them was, what looked like, a clone of Phil.

“Oh my stars…” Phil said, amazed.

“Now go.” Dan commands.

The puppet Phil started to run towards the crabs, jumping over them and saying in Phil’s voice, “Oh my stars, oh no!” 

The crabs immediately started to chase the puppet into the forest and Dan pulled the real Phil into his home and shut the door, casting another spell seemingly to reinforce the door.

Phil sighed a huge sigh of relief and then collapsed on his knees, slightly laughing to himself. He’s alive. Although, Dan looked exhausted when he pulled up a chair and sank into it, breathing heavily.

“Dan, are you ok?”

“Oh yea, I’m freaking perfect. Now… Do you want to tell me what the hell was that all about? And how you seemingly knew how to distract the crabs?”

“Hold on. Need I remind you that you’re the one who was using dark bloody magic.”

Dan looked incredibly pissed at that statement. “Look, I could throw you out right now and feed you to those damn crabs.”

Phil’s face definitely showed fear and he really didn’t want to make Dan mad, but with the threat of death not too far outside, he just closed his mouth and looked down at the floor. Dan was incredibly irritated, but seeing Phil scared made Dan feel guilty, he didn’t exactly know why though. To him, Phil was just another villager who could turn on him at any moment. So why did he care about Phil?

“Uh… I’m sorry about that… I’m just… not used to people actually seeing me use my powers. I got nervous. I’m sorry.”

Phil looked up at Dan, surprised. “Oh uh no it’s ok, I shouldn’t have said that. But… if you really want to know, I could tell you about the crabs?”

Dan nodded, trying to forget what just happened. “Yea, that’d be great. Oh, you can take a seat over here.”

Phil stood up and walked over to a little dining area near the kitchen. It wasn’t much, just a simple wooden table and two chairs right up against the stonewall of the cottage.

“I’m assuming this was PJ’s work.” Phil said with a smile.

Dan chuckled, “Oh yea. He was the only one who didn’t throw a fit every time I tried to go into his tent and he made cool furniture.”

They sat down across from each other and Phil started explaining that the crabs came from his story, that he came up with them, he never shared this story with the village because he knew the kids would be terrified and he never wanted to scare them. But he still didn’t know how they became reality, the crabs were just creatures he made up for a story.

The whole time Dan was listening, he also seemed to be thinking about the whole situation.

“Hmm… honestly, that sounds like the work of some dark magic. I would know.” Dan says with a slight chuckle.

_‘Did he just try to make a joke? That was kind of cute.’_ Phil thought, laughing slightly.

“So you said that you created the crabs, the only person who knows about this story is you and it’s only written in your notebook?” Dan asked.

Phil nods.

“I see… Do you mind if I look at that notebook for a second?” Dan asks.

“What for?”

“I just have a theory and I want to see if I’m right.” Dan clarifies.

Phil hands his notebook over to Dan and as soon as his hand touches the leather of the cover, Dan jerks as if he’s been shocked. But he regains himself and starts in the middle to look through the pages, although it doesn’t look like he’s reading the stories on the pages. It’s as if he’s scanning them, looking for something.

“Unbelievable… this entire notebook is practically covered with dark magic.” Dan whispers.

“What?! Dark magic? But… that’s impossible. I don’t practice dark magic and I’ve always had this notebook with me. How in the world does my notebook contain dark magic?” Phil exclaims.

Dan is still transfixed on the pages, “That’s what I’m trying to figure out.”

After a few intense minutes of scanning the pages, Dan closes the notebook and gives it back to Phil. Although Phil is now hesitant to take it, he still takes it and puts it on his lap.

“So… it seems like a dark sorcerer has cursed your notebook into creating any monster you write about. That’s why the crabs are now reality… and I wouldn’t be surprised if any monster you created in that notebook is about to appear in this world.”

Phil was shocked. His stories. His creations. His… monsters. They’re coming to life.

“How… do I fix this? I can’t just get rid of the notebook. The monsters would still appear and I can’t let that happen.”

“Well… I would say to get that curse lifted by the same sorcerer who cast it.”

Phil stood up in distress. “But Dan, you know dark magic, can’t you get rid of the curse?”

Dan sighs. “It really isn’t that easy, Phil. If it was, I would have immediately done that. But I can’t just get rid of another dark magic user’s curse, especially one that powerful.”

Phil begins to pace around the room, tears ready to fall. He was terrified and worried about what could happen if the notebook begins to conjure up more of his terrifying creatures. He could die. His friends could die. His village could be destroyed. Dan stood up and held Phil’s shoulders, trying to get him to calm down.

“Phil, it’ll be alright. I’ll try and help you. Because I’ll be honest, I really don’t want to have to fight any more creatures like that. You have a very creative mind.” 

Phil laughed a little, but he was skeptical on how Dan could help him. If Dan couldn’t get rid of the curse and seemingly didn’t know who the original sorcerer was, then how could he help him?

“But… how…?” Phil sniffed.

“Phil, I can track the original source of magic, the sorcerer, and of course I can always help in a fight.”

“Oh… right. Ha, this seems way out of character for you, Dan. Helping someone you just technically met.”

Dan stiffened, “Uh well yea, but after seeing how scared you were because of all this… uhh I mean… crap.”

Feeling embarrassed, Dan turned away, “I don’t really know why I want to help you. Maybe it’s the fact that it has to do with dark magic? Maybe it’s the thought of actually doing something different than moping around here? I don’t know. I just know… I want to help.

Phil was stunned. After Dan’s abrasive first impression, he never would have thought that he would have helped him in the first place, let alone help him find the sorcerer who had done this. Phil feels incredibly honored that someone as untrusting as Dan would be willing to do this for him.

Phil reached out, hesitantly, to put a hand on his shoulder. “Dan. Thank you. For being willing to do this. I promise I won’t do anything that would offend you or make you upset.”

Dan chuckled, “I’ll hold you to it. So how about for today, we just focus on finding out who this sorcerer is and telling each other our strengths and weaknesses? Tomorrow we’ll head out and try to find them as soon as possible. Sound good?”

“Yea sounds good."

For the rest of the afternoon, Dan was explaining to Phil, with some hesitation, what his abilities specifically are and that his specialty when it comes to dark magic is to create puppets. The puppets could be made from anything and he could make them look and sound just like another human being. 

Phil really had the urge to start writing all this down because it could serve as great inspiration for another story, but he knew that writing in the notebook might not be the safest idea right now.

“Damn…” Phil whispered.

“What’s wrong?” 

“Oh, it’s just that I really want to start writing things down, but I guess I shouldn’t do that, right?” Phil asked.

“Yea… unless…” Dan paused for a few moments and then he clapped his hands together. “I got an idea. Phil, hand me your notebook.”

After Dan had gotten the notebook, he opened it up to a blank page and put his hands on the page itself. His hands started to glow black as his eyes closed in concentration. The page started to glow black as well, but then Dan pulled his hands back like he got shocked again.

“Ugh, I guess that isn’t going to happen.” Dan said, slightly disappointed.

“Umm, what were you trying to do, Dan?”

“I was trying to see if I could make one or two of your pages tied to my magic. The curse where the stories come to life isn’t going anywhere, but if I could redirect what happens to me and my magic, that could be for our benefit in the long run.” Dan explained.

“Hmm, do you think you could add pages that’s already tied to your magic?” Phil asked.

Dan thought about it and seemed like a pretty good idea, so he gathered two blank pages and put one hand on either one and concentrated on transferring some of his magic into them. His hands and the pages were glowing, but this time they were glowing light and Dan didn’t jerk his hands away.

“Ok, that should do it.” Dan said, panting a little. “Now give me a second, I’ll still need to use a little more magic to attach them to the notebook.”

After catching his breath, Dan raised his hands and the two pages started to rise off the table with them. Dan focused on attaching the two pages as if they were always in the notebook, but he seemed to be struggling, grunting every now and then. Then, after a minute, the pages were finally sealed into the book.

“Dan, you did it!” Phil cheered.

Meanwhile, Dan was a little worried. If just tying his magic to pages and sealing them in a book made him this exhausted, he was nervous about if he had to fight a more powerful sorcerer, but he didn’t want to let that show.

“Yea… I did.” Dan said, breathing heavily.

“Well wait, how do we know it worked?” 

“By you writing something. But not now, I haven’t used that much magic in a long time and it’s almost sundown. Tomorrow, we’ll test if it worked and then we’ll head out to find this sorcerer. I think we’re in luck though. I sense that they are near the village, probably to make sure that the curse is always at its fullest.”

Phil was relieved that they wouldn’t have to travel far, but also a bit worried that there was a powerful dark magic user near his home and friends. But he was confident that he and Dan could maybe work something out.

“What time should I come back here so we can test it?” Phil asked.

“Oh uhh… To be honest, I sort of planned on you sleeping here... so we don’t have to unnecessarily waste energy.” Dan said.

_‘WHAT ARE YOU DOING? WHY ARE YOU LETTING YOUR GUARD DOWN LIKE THIS? THIS ISN’T YOU!’_ Dan screamed in his head.

“O-oh… yes, I s-suppose this makes sense.” Phil stuttered.

_‘Sleep here?! In his cottage?! I must be out of my mind. But… why did he offer?’_ Phil thought.

“I’ll.. prepare a bed for you, in the meantime, feel free to look around.” Dan said, turning to walk away. But he quickly looked back at Phil.

“Just don’t touch anything.”

“Yes! Of course, got it.” Phil said.

While Dan went into his room to get things to make a bed, Phil decided to look around his kitchen. He didn’t want to make Dan uncomfortable by being too nosy, but he was really curious. Stepping into an arch way that led to a small room with a few cabinets, a stone compartment for keeping meats cool, a mini stove and a kettle sitting on the burner.

_‘I wonder if he likes tea? Or maybe coffee?’_ Phil thought.

Phil ran his hands over the wooden cabinets, feeling the etchings. _‘That’s got to be PJ’s work. The crafting is incredible… How many times has Dan gone to the village? I never really noticed, now that I think about it.’_

Phil was really tempted to open the cabinet and see what’s inside. _‘He did say I could look, just not touch.’_

After that thought, Phil opened up one of the cabinets to check inside and just found some spices in jars. He figures the spices came from the forest and Dan’s been using them to cook his food. Checking the next cabinet, he finds more things in jars, but they don’t look like spices, but he can’t figure out what they are. Some look like paste, others look like seeds, and others look like flowers, all in vibrant colours too.

_‘Potions? Although, I wouldn’t know why Dan would need potions.’_

The last cabinet he opened contained something that was definitely different than the others. It was a book. Phil couldn’t read the cover, however, but he could see the main colour of the cover was light blue with swirls of gold that seemed to be serving as the writing. Phil was incredibly curious, but he remembered Dan’s words and didn’t want to piss him off, so he just closed the cabinet. He did want to make a mental note to ask Dan about it later.

Just as Phil was finished looking around the kitchen, Dan came in.

“Alright, your bed’s all set. It’s just in this next room.”

It was a simple bed, made from moss, hay and seemingly some cotton. Dan explained that he would have created one with magic, but he was exhausted and was going to go to sleep. He gave Phil some normal blank pages to write on if he got bored before he went to his room. Phil thanked him for his hospitality and sat down on the bed, feeling that it’s not bad for something that was thrown together last minute. After saying good night, Dan went to his room and collapsed on his bed, but not before thinking about Phil one more time.

_‘Seriously Dan, this isn’t like you… You promised yourself that you would stop thinking like this. But he seems like a decent guy. He just wants to get rid of this curse… Think realistically, he probably doesn’t care for you, just has this one goal in mind. Ughhhhh, just stop thinking and get some sleep.’_

With Dan fast asleep, Phil tried to write down some ideas for how he could help with Dan’s black magic abilities. He didn’t really know how it worked, he could only take guesses. Maybe sorcerer’s are born with these abilities? Or even cursed? Perhaps some willingly wanted the powers? Regardless, Phil saw how tired Dan was and he thought he could give Dan enhanced stamina so he doesn’t tire out if they have to fight. He even wanted to see if he could create puppets of his own, so all Dan would have to do is just control them.

Phil wrote down ideas, even when the moon had come up, but he did tire himself out and eventually fell asleep, dreaming of the battles he and Dan could have.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------

The next morning, Dan and Phil headed out into the forest in the direction of the sorcerer’s magic, with a few supplies and Phil’s notebook in hand.

“So you want to give me more stamina? And you also want to create puppets?” Dan asked.

“Uh yea, it would benefit us, don’t you think? You could be stronger in fights and you wouldn’t waste energy on creating puppets.” 

“Hmm, seems like a good idea. But let’s test things out first, don’t need things to go wrong when we’re fighting, right?”

Phil opened up to Dan’s pages and tried to think of a way to give Dan enhanced stamina. After some thinking and testing out sentences in his head, he settled on, _‘Dan Howell, a user of dark magic, needed a way to conjure more spells without losing energy as fast. Luckily, fate was on his side. Suddenly he felt stronger, more energized. His hopes had come to fruition, with his stamina now increased, he could conjure more advanced spells and he wouldn’t be as exhausted.’_

The page started to glow, but as that was happening, Dan stumbled a bit backwards.

“Oh stars, Dan are you ok? Did I do something wrong?” Phil asked, worriedly.

“No no, you’re fine, just… wasn’t ready for that.” Dan said, panting slightly.

“So… how do you feel?” Phil tentatively asked.

“I feel… good, stronger even.” Dan said

Dan looked around, saw a few rocks that were about the size of coconuts and had an idea on how to test his new enhanced stamina. He reached out his hands that started to glow black again and focused on lifting all of the rocks at once. Phil gasped at the rocks floating, excited that the pages seemed to be working. Dan let out a small laugh and pushed the rocks away with incredible force, some getting stuck in the trees surrounding them.

“Dan, that was incredible!” 

“I know and I didn’t even break a sweat. Nice job, Phil.”

“W-What do you mean? I didn’t really do much.” 

Dan laughed and put a hand on Phil’s shoulder, “You’re the one that helped me with that, enhanced my strength and all, I may have provided the magic, but you’re the one that put it into words and made something amazing out of it.”

Phil felt so many emotions go through him at that moment. Excitement, happiness, shock, embarrassment, denial. He wanted to say that it was all Dan, that he himself can’t do much. But just for argument’s sake, he said a quiet, “Thank you, Dan.”

Dan smiled, “So I heard you wanted to try and create a puppet?”

Phil looked down at his page and noticed that the piece he wrote for Dan’s stamina was gone. He gave Dan a puzzled look, “Dan, why did the writing disappear?”

“Oh I forgot to mention that. Once you’re finished writing something, it will disappear so you don’t have to use multiple pages, you can just reuse the ones you have. The effects of whatever you wrote don’t go away though, you would just have to write something else to get rid of them.”

As handy as that was, Phil hopes his bad memory doesn’t make that a disadvantage to the both of them. Dan decided to help Phil with how he creates puppets so that when he writes them and describes them, they don’t end up looking like another monster. Dan tells him to envision who he wants to create in his head, their hair, their eyes, the colour of their skin, how tall are they, what their body looks like, what their clothes look like, and to try not to focus too much on any extra facial features. The extra facial features should be something to worry about if it needs to be a really convincing puppet.

Phil took a deep breath, “Ok. I think I have something.”

His pencil touched the paper and he started to write, _‘With hair and eyes as pink as cherry blossoms, skin as golden as tea, as tall as an elf and has muscles like a god of strength, my puppet can come to life, wearing a tunic as blue as the ocean.’_

The page started to glow again and in front of them appeared the puppet that Phil created. Once Dan saw the colours of their hair and clothes, as well as how short they were, he burst out laughing.

“Oh stars… I did not expect that.” Dan said before laughing loudly again. “You really do have a very creative mind.”

Phil laughs, “I just wanted to test, I don’t think I would make my puppets look like this. But how about you? Can you control them?”

After calming down a little, Dan focused on feeling the anatomy of the puppet through him and started to raise one arm, seeing the puppet do the same. Phil was looking at all of this, transfixed and mind racing with ideas on how this feels for Dan, wondering if the puppet feels like an extension of himself.

“Incredible…” Phil whispers.

Dan, for now, just raises his arms some more and commands the puppet to move around in a circle. Once he feels like he has full control over the puppet, Dan centers himself and says, “Release.” making the puppet’s head go hanging and the limbs, seemingly, go limp.

“And I still feel great, I don’t feel tired. That’s amazing.” Dan said.

“I’m proud, Dan, honestly. What you can do is incredible.”

Dan frowned and turned away.

“But you should be scared of me. This isn’t like I have superpowers, I have dark magic. The forbidden arts. I could do some… seriously bad things, if I wanted to.” 

“Well there you go. If you wanted to. And you don’t seem like the type of person to want to do anything bad.”

Dan turned to him, “Even after how I acted towards you yesterday?”

“I’ve been told I’m a great judge of character.” Phil said with a smile.

Dan didn’t say anything after that. He was glad Phil seemed to trust him, but he was still worried about himself. He didn’t want to let his guard down and let Phil hurt him, like so many others have.

“Come on, let’s keep going. If what you said is true, then we might be able to reach them by sundown.” Phil said.

_‘He must be thinking about a lot. I don’t blame him. I’d probably be having a lot on my mind too.’_

For a few hours of walking, with some short breaks, Dan didn’t say much, just going back and forth with himself in his mind about how he should feel about Phil. Wondering if he should let his guard down just a little or just be abrasive until this is over to see his true intentions.

“DAN, LOOK OUT!” Phil screamed out.

Dan looked up just in time to see a glowing yellow projectile coming right towards him. Luckily, Phil pushed him out of the way in time. Phil opened up his notebook and got his pencil ready and Dan was prepared to cast any spell needed, his hands starting to glow that signature black and purple. But what they saw looked like a wild jackal in front of them, just standing there and staring at them.

“Wait, I don’t understand. The jackal couldn’t have been the one to do that right?” Phil said, confused.

Dan took a closer look at the animal, trying to see if there’s anything that he missed. Then, he and the jackal locked eyes and Dan saw its eyes glow gold for a split second. Dan’s eyes widened and he conjured up a ball of dark magic and blasted it at the jackal. It missed, however, and hit a tree to the right of the jackal and exploded.

“Dan! What are you doing?” 

“Phil, it’s one of your creatures, isn’t it?” Dan said, still staring at the jackal. “It didn’t move when the magic hit the tree.”

Phil tried to think of all the creatures he’s created and he vaguely remembers something about a jackal. That was one of the first creatures he created when he first got his notebook, but that was so long ago and Phil barely remembers how he wrote the jackal in the first place.

The jackal looks as if it’s taking a deep inhale, but Dan realizes what it’s about to do and throws a counter measure, another ball of magic. The two balls of magic collide and explode in colours of gold and black. The jackal starts to growl and bark at Dan, seemingly unable to talk.

“Wait, I have an idea.” Phil said.

Flipping the notebook to Dan’s pages, Phil started writing out something that could stop the dangerous jackal and perhaps tell them some information. All the while, Dan was trying to hit the creature, while it moved around dodging his attacks while dealing some of its own. Phil hoped that Dan wouldn’t hit him.

_‘The jackal of gold, seeming frustrated that it could not communicate to the dark magic user, focused all of its energy on being able to speak. However, because it used all of its energy on that ability, it collapsed in exhaustion, but did not pass out.”_

“Dan, stop!” Phil yelled.

But Dan kept throwing dark magic, ignoring what Phil was saying, just focusing on destroying the creature. It wasn’t until Phil shook Dan that he finally stopped attacking the jackal and Phil pointed at the creature. It started to growl and bark again, but they noticed that the jackal seemed to get angrier with every growl and bark, until… “...The Master hopes you rot!”

The jackal itself seemed surprised that it did that, but didn’t stay surprised for long, as its body collapsed, just as Phil wrote.

Dan and Phil ran over to it, as it started to whimper, fighting sleep, wanting to stand up and battle. Dan shushed the creature, saying that they wouldn’t hurt him.

“Please, jackal of gold. What can you tell us about your master?” Phil asked.

The jackal looked up and growled at him, “So you are my creator? Even if you are my creator, I wouldn’t tell you anything. The Master knows you are coming for him. You’d best prepare yourselves…” 

It was at that moment, the jackal finally succumbed to sleep. Dan, however, was annoyed that Phil wouldn’t let him fight, even though that’s what they’ve been preparing for to face the sorcerer.

Dan just asked if the creature was dead. When told no, he stood up and kept walking in the direction of the sorcerer’s magic, but Phil seemed confused on why Dan was upset.

“Dan? Dan! Why are you upset?”

“Why am I upset? Why didn’t you let me fight it some more? We could have been quick to kill it and not worry about it, now that I can actually conjure spells to do that.” Dan said.

Phil felt conflicted. He could understand where Dan was coming from, but that jackal was his creature. It was also his first ever creation that he was proud of. He would feel guilty trying to do that.

“It just didn’t seem right.” Phil said, meekly.

“Didn’t seem right? Why? Because you created them? Need I remind you when we first went up against one of your creatures, you were begging me to kill them.”

“That was different! I never liked those crabs I made, plus they were going to kill me!” Phil started to raise his voice.

Dan paused for a second, “Just forget it, Phil. Let’s go to the sorcerer and get this over with.” 

_‘Get it over with? I guess… maybe I misread the situation between us.”_ Phil thought.

They walked together in uncomfortable silence for another few minutes, both calming down after the argument that just happened and both feeling guilty. Dan worked up the courage for what felt like hours to try and apologize to Phil

“...Phil?” Dan whispered.

“Yea Dan?” Phil said, no louder than Dan.

“I’m… sorry… for how I acted. I get that the jackal might have a special place in your heart and it was stupid of me to try and kill it. I’ve just never had this much stamina to conjure those types of spells and when I saw an opportunity to see my full potential with the power you gave me…” 

Phil felt a slight chill in his spine after hearing Dan say those last few words, but he didn’t know why. It was almost like a faint memory, scratching at the back of his head.

“I just really wanted to push myself…” 

Dan turned away and chuckled bitterly after saying that, “It’s like I said… I could do some terrible things…”

“Dan… don’t say that. I understand that power does things to people. And I know… that at the end of the day, those creatures were just meant to exist in my head, not out in the real world. They’re dangerous and I shouldn’t let emotions get the better of me at a time like this.”

Phil started to tear up, “So… how about we say we were both wrong and move on?” 

Dan let out a laugh, “Yea… let’s do that… still feel terrible for it though.”

“Don’t worry, I do too.” Phil said with a smile.

They stood there for a moment, just looking at each other, until Phil tackled Dan in a hug, the force being strong enough that they both fell to the ground. Both giggling as they hugged each other, Dan felt strangely warm on the inside. He was happy. He felt happiness. Something he hadn’t felt for a long time.

“Alright, alright Phil, you’re starting to crush me.”

“Oops sorry.” Phil giggled.

After getting up, Phil held out a hand for Dan so he could help him up. Taking a few seconds to dust each other off, Dan had an idea.

“Hey, why don’t you read through that notebook of yours? So you can remember all the monsters you’ve written and we can be prepared for them.”

“Oh that’s a great idea, I’ll let you know if we have to worry about any others.”

Opening up his notebook, Phil flipped to the first page. The first story he ever fully wrote. He wrote it when he was young, but he’s kept it with him ever since, to remind himself how much he’s grown as a writer. Reading through the story, something about it made his blood run cold.

“Hey Dan?”

“Hmm?”

“You said you could see that the notebook was covered in dark magic right?”

“Yea, why?”

“Can you see how long it’s been there too?”

Dan paused and looked at Phil, “Uh I can try.”

Dan, closing the notebook and scanning it again, he tried his best to try and see how long it’s been teeming with this curse. Once he determines how long it’s been, he gasps.

“Years… It's been years that the notebook has had the curse.”

Phil freezes, terrified. “Y-years? No…. no that can’t be true.”

“But it is true. Why? What’s wrong, Phil?”

“Uhhh… nothing. It’s nothing. Just… scary to think that I’ve been writing in that thing for years and now all of a sudden, the monsters are coming to life.”

Dan was skeptical that this is why Phil was scared, but he decided not to press for more.

“Right… Well anyways, we shouldn’t be too far away. It’s almost sundown and with the pace we’re going, we should get there before then.”

“Ok… Again, scary to think a powerful sorcerer lives so close to us.” Phil said.

“Hey… one more thing.” Phil said.

“Yea?”

“How did you get your powers, Dan?”

Dan tensed up, but seemed to have relaxed a little after a few seconds. “According to my mother, I might have been born with them, but I didn’t show them until after a few years, like when I was five. Why?”

“Oh… just curious is all. Thanks… you know, for telling me.”

After walking for a while, with Phil warning Dan of any potentially dangerous creature they might run into, the duo started to see what looked like a house on the horizon

“Stars… we did it… I’m just thankful it didn’t take a year to find him.” Dan said, breathless. “Maybe we should do this tomorrow?”

“No.” Phil said, confidently. “I don’t want him bringing any more harm onto you, me, or the village… Oh no… the village! I hope everyone is ok.”

Phil started to pace around anxiously as he thought the worst for his village. He remembered the crabs and he hoped that they hadn’t reached the village. No one was a match for them, especially if Dan couldn’t do anything to them, except distract them. But he finally stopped when Dan grabbed his shoulders and looked at him to calm him down.

“Phil. It’ll be alright. Your village is fine. For now, let’s just focus on dealing with the sorcerer. You have puppets in mind if we need them?”

Phil nodded.

“Good. Then we’ll be fine.”

“But we’ve only faced some things that have probably a quarter of this guy’s power. We won’t stand a chance.”

Dan smirked. “You’re starting to sound like me when I was a kid. All anxious and pessimistic. But trust me, we’ll be ok.”

Phil took a deep breath and let it out, relaxing a little. “Ok. Let’s do this.”

Jogging up to the front door to get rid of the last of the nerves, Dan and Phil finally made it to the sorcerer. They both looked at each other, as if asking how they were going to approach the first meeting. Phil stepped up and knocked hard on the door, making sure to let anyone who’s home know that they had company.

The wooden door opened up to reveal a Phil clone standing in the doorway. The duo, shocked and not prepared, took a step back, with Dan’s hands starting to glow black again.

“That will not be necessary. You can let them in.” A deep voice emanated from inside the house.

The clone just looked at the pair, turned around and walked towards the voice. Dan and Phil looked at each other before following, not really taking the time to look at the house because they were there for one reason and one reason only.

“Ahh Philip Lester. Nice to finally meet you.” The voice said before they were in the room.

Walking in, what seemed to be a living room, the boys saw a male looking not that much older than Phil sitting in a chair, wearing an all black cloak, his hair short and pure white. He looked like some sort of archangel, but the clone walked over to the man and stood by his side. Phil was clutching his notebook in his right hand and Dan had about five different spells going through his head, ready to conjure them at any given moment, all with the intent to kill.

“I would ask if you had a nice time with your crabs and jackal, but I’m sure I wouldn’t get much of an answer, now would I?”

Phil stepped forward, “Why have you taken my creatures and given them life? And then used them in an attempt to kill me? Furthermore, why did you curse my notebook in the first place? Who are you?”

The sorcerer chuckled, “You don’t waste any time. I like that. But I suppose since you won’t win this fight, I can tell you what you want to know. My name is Xander. I’ve seen your talent for storytelling ever since I was young, I was already mastering the dark arts by that point and knew I wanted to use what you create to my benefit as I reach maturity. So I cursed the notebook you own to allow me to conjure them into reality, but I realised that at some point, I would have the creatures and warriors I needed to become a god. So I would need to get rid of you and how poetic it would be to have been killed by your own works of art.”

Phil was shocked and a little disgusted by the fact that Xander has been, technically, watching him ever since he was young. But that quickly turned to rage, he didn’t want this man to hurt anyone ever again.

“You will release this curse on my notebook, at once!” Phil yelled. 

“I don’t think so.” Xander laughed.

He then pointed at Dan, “And you. Such a young, weak sorcerer. Only relying on boosts of power to see your own potential. I would be careful if I were you. The body can only take so much. What happens when you put it through the strain of dealing with so much dark magic?”

“The last thing I need is for you to tell me how much my body can take. I’ve taken all kinds of beatings and ridicules over the years. I don’t need your garbage.” Dan said.

Xander seemed to have an idea and smiled knowingly at Phil, which unnerved him to no end. He stood up from his chair and walked over to a desk that he had in the corner of the room.

“Now Daniel. Have you ever wondered where your powers came from? Why you were, seemingly, born with them? Haven’t you?”

Phil was furious at this point, “This is not about him! This is between you and me!” 

“Exactly and I will eviscerate you if I have to!” Dan yelled.

“Oh but I’m sure you’re curious, aren’t you?” Xander said, scarily calm.

“Leave. Me. Alone!” Dan screamed, before hurling a ball of black magic at Xander.

Without even moving, Xander conjured up a shield and blocked the ball with no hesitation. Xander laughed at Dan’s attempt to hit him.

“You really think you can defeat me with an attack as simple as that? You really are the worst sorcerer I’ve ever seen.”

Dan and Phil were seething with rage at this point, but they both didn’t realize that Xander was doing that on purpose. He was heightening their emotions so they would get angry quickly, which would make them easy targets. But he wanted to hit one more nail on the coffin first.

“Phil! Make the puppets!” Dan yelled.

But before Phil could start writing, the clone came up and easily tied Phil’s hands so that he couldn’t use his notebook, but of course, that meant dropping onto the floor. The clone picked it and threw it in a chair behind them before going to tie Phil’s legs.

Dan was still trying to hit Xander with any combination of spells he could think of, but Xander was just defending them with ease and not looking tired in the slightest. But Dan tried one last combo where he went for a surprise attack by having a ball go around Xander and hit him in the back of the head, while he was busy blocking the other attacks.

Dan smirked as he saw Xander look at him in disbelief, “You little brat! You want a fight? I’ll give you a fight!”

Xander charged up a beam of magic and looked at Dan, ready to fire. Dan put up a shield, but it was too weak. The strength of Xander was too much and it not only broke his shield, but it flung him backwards against the wall.

“Now then, seeing as you won’t be getting up for a while. I thought I might ask you a question. Why are you helping him?” Xander said, while pointing to Phil, who was now tied up and writhing on the floor.

“Because…. Because… he’s my friend, you bastard.” Dan said, panting.

“Ahh, because he’s your friend. Now let me ask you another question. Do you hate your dark magic powers?”

“Of course I do.” Dan said this with venom in his voice. “I’ve been treated like I was absolutely nothing because of these powers for as long as I’ve had them. Why are you asking?”

Xander chuckled. “Oh, no reason. No reason at all. Well except for the fact that I was wondering why after all this time, you would be helping… your creator.”

Everything stopped for that second. Phil froze. Dan froze. Dan looked at Xander with as much rage as he could muster. “You’re… You’re a lying son of a bitch. I’m human. I’m not a creature.”

Xander picked up the notebook from the chair. “Oh, no. You’re absolutely right about you being a human, but he gave you these powers. He chose you as his main character, blessed with dark magic. If you don’t believe me, read it yourself.”

Xander tossed the notebook on the floor in front of Dan, then looked at Phil. “You never told him, huh?”

Dan was horrified as he read the first few pages of the notebook. The first story Phil ever wrote was of a boy that had been granted dark magic abilities and that boy was Dan. For years, Dan had been subjected to torment all because of Phil.

“Dan… please… I’m so sorry, I meant to tell you when I figured out it was you… but I couldn’t find the right time… please forgive me.” Phil pleaded while writhing on the floor.

Dan looked up to him, “Why? Why me? Do you know how much I’ve suffered because of you?!”

Dan stood up and ran as fast as he could out the door, into the forest, leaving Phil with Xander and the clone. Phil was sobbing now, he had just lost a friend and was mostly likely going to die at the hands of Xander.

“Well… I’m glad that’s over now.” 

Xander gestured to the clone to get the notebook, while he walked over to Phil. He picked up the crying Phil and brought him to his feet.

“You know Philip, I’m glad this happened. And don’t worry I’ll remove that curse if that’s what you really want. But I’m not going to let you walk away from this unharmed. You made this quite difficult, I must say.”

Taking the notebook from the clone, Xander put his hands on it and removed the curse without blinking an eye and tucked it within Phil’s ropes.

“And I’ll tell you something else. This clone right here was meant to serve as your replacement, your… simulacrum, if you will.”

Phil looked at the clone through his tears and saw that yes, this was a perfect match to himself. Anybody could easily mistake it as Phil himself.

“But for now, I must bid you adieu, you’ll die out in the forest and your remains will be used as fertilizer for my garden, when I go to fetch them.”

Xander placed a hand on Phil’s chest and magic started to course through Phil’s body, but it was killing him slowly. It hurt. It hurt so much. It was the worst pain Phil has ever felt, he screamed out a couple of times. Some of them being screams for Dan to help him, to save him.

Phil was growing weaker and weaker by the second, but before he could pass out, Xander stopped and gave him to the clone. The clone picked up his limp body and threw him as hard as he could out of the house. The impact of the ground hurt, but it was nowhere near the amount of pain he just endured. Phil knew he had to at least get out of the ropes binding him.

Because of his weakness, the ropes weren’t getting tighter. With this, he was able to pull out his notebook and a pencil hidden in his sleeve. He wasn’t sure this would work, the curse was gone now, but at this point, what does he have to lose? He opened up to Dan’s pages and started to write.

_‘As the man lay slowly dying, he wished that his wounds would heal, long enough for him to find help. This wasn’t how he was meant to die. The wish came true.’_

Phil, not having the strength to write anymore, let go of his pencil and just breathed heavily against the dirt. He was still crying at the fact that he betrayed Dan, when he promised him he wouldn’t. At this point, he just wanted the embrace of death to come for him, he couldn’t live with himself anymore. His thoughts were getting foggy, his eyesight going black, his body going limp.

Until… all of that suddenly stopped. Phil opened his eyes, still in pain, but he felt stronger. Strong enough to wriggle out of the ropes and stand up to go into the dark forest to look for Dan or, at the very least, look for help. Clutching his notebook, he limped towards the forest.

“Dan… please… anybody… help me…” Phil yelled out.

Phil collapsed onto his knees, he didn’t want to keep doing this. He just wanted to go home, he just wanted Dan back, he just wanted to apologize until he died.

_‘Phil… Phil…’_ Phil could hear Dan’s voice, but assumed he was just imagining it.

“Phil! Phil! Where are you?!”

Phil started to cry again, he really wished he could apologize to Dan.

“PHIL!” 

That wasn’t in his mind. That was Dan.

“Dan! I’m here! Please! Help me!” 

Dan finally emerged from the darkness and he could see Phil on his knees. He ran over to him and wrapped him up in his arms. Both were sobbing into each other’s shoulders now. They were exchanging apologies back and forth. Sorry for abandoning. Sorry for not telling him sooner.

“What… made you… come back?” Phil asked, between cries.

“I… realized that you were only young when you wrote that story… You had absolutely no clue Xander cursed your book. You couldn’t have known… And then with trying to tell me… Fuck, I wouldn’t even want to tell me.”

Phil laughed at the foul language, but he was so grateful that Dan forgave him. He just hugged him as hard as he could, but let go, as he felt the pain starting to consume him again.

“Oh no, shit… he hurt you pretty bad, didn’t he? It’s ok, Phil. I got this. It’ll be alright.”

Dan placed his hands on Phil’s chest and he could feel more magic flowing through him, but instead of pain, he felt… less pain? Phil could feel himself being healed by Dan. He sucked in a breath of air, so grateful to not be in agonizing pain anymore, even if it was for less than five minutes, he never wanted to feel that again.

“Dan… how did you…?” Phil asked.

“I could feel when you were writing. Those pages were still tied to my magic, Xander never got rid of that. I could hear what you were writing and I followed it back to you… Oh and I just learned this healing shit from a book I have. Not bad for a first time, right?” Dan said.

Phil laughed, amazed that that was the first time Dan has healed someone. Dan stood up and offered a hand to Phil.

“Come on, we have a sorcerer to destroy.”

“But the notebook. It doesn’t have that curse anymore.” Phil said.

Dan shook his head, “Don’t worry about it. We still have my magic pages. Let’s go get him, but maybe you want to create the puppets beforehand.”

After writing the descriptions of the puppets, Dan and Phil walked back to Xander’s house and kicked open the door. They were ready, they were ready to end this.

Xander turned around and saw Dan and Phil, perfectly fine and could sense that they were stronger now.

“What?! How?!”

Dan and Phil held hands and looked at Xander.

“Because we’re friends, bitch!” Phil yelled.

Dan fired a ball of magic at the clone and pushed him back against the wall and seemingly knocked him out.

“You little arseholes!” Xander yelled.

Dan brought up a shield up between them as Xander fired a beam of magic, but this time, the shield didn’t break. Dan gave a smug smirk from behind the shield. Xander stared in disbelief.

“How is this… Oof”

Before Xander could finish that sentence, he got hit in the side of his head by another ball of magic. When he looked to where it had come from, he saw another Dan standing in the doorway, radiating dark energy.

“Ohh, I see. They’re your puppets. Well even if you had a thousand of them, I’d still win! I have your creatures!”

“But do you really think you stand against us? You pathetic excuse for a human?” Dan asked.

Xander gave a crazed smile, “Of course I do… I have that creature that Philip was preparing to write about, plus many more!”

After that, Xander raised his hands, glowing pure black, and blew off the roof and walls of his home. He conjured up the feline-like monster Phil saw in his dreams and others like the griffin, a powerful dragon and a human demon hybrid. Phil’s most powerful monsters he’s ever written.

Dan and Phil stood back to back, Dan ready to fight and Phil ready to write. But it wasn’t until Xander looked around the area that he saw all of the puppets Phil created. There must have been hundreds of them. They all looked like Dan and seemed to have his abilities, which of course made him nervous, seeing how strong Dan was now.

Xander turned around and blasted tons of puppet’s back with his magic, but many of them stood their ground and shielded themselves. The real Dan commanded a majority of the clones to focus on the monsters and let them deal with Xander. If Xander dies, so do the monsters. They just wanted those puppets to defend themselves and distract the monsters.

Xander used up all of his energy to push back as many puppets as he could, but he was becoming exhausted. Creating the monsters took a lot more energy than he thought, but he was determined to win. Xander was so focused on keeping the puppets away, that he hadn’t noticed Phil writing in his notebook.

“NO!” Xander screamed and sent out a huge beam of magic straight towards Phil.

Phil just looked up and smiled. The blast disappeared before it reached him. He had written himself his own shield that would make any projectile disappear, but it was mostly to distract.

“Hey! Pathetic bastard!” Dan screamed from behind him.

When Xander turned around, he was met with Dan and ten puppets sending out a combined charged beam at him, complete with an explosion Dan wished he could have conjured up yesterday. Xander was too weak to put up a shield and so succumbed to the power of Dan and Phil.

When Xander practically disintegrated, the monsters and the knocked out clone disappeared just the same and everything was silent. For a few seconds, Dan and Phil listened to the stillness of the forest and realized that they won. The battle was finally over and they don’t have to worry about monsters anymore. Phil quickly wrote away all of the remaining puppets, thanking them for their service. Once they were gone, Dan and Phil raced to hug each other and cry into each other’s arms.

“We did it…” They said at the same time.

Laughing to themselves, they looked around and saw the mess they made of the land. It was just scorched earth and a dark plot of land, with only the moon to reveal what has happened.

“So… now what do we do?” Phil asked.

Dan collapsed on the floor. “Write us up a bed, I’m not moving and no one is going to be stupid enough to come here at this time of night.”

Phil laughed and started to describe a bed for the two of them to sleep in. But he paused.

“Hey Dan?”

“Hmm?”

“I know I need to get rid of this notebook when we go back to the village tomorrow, I don’t really want to worry about it anymore, but do you want me to get rid of your dark magic abilities?”

At this, Dan sat up and looked at Phil, “All my life, people never accepted me for who I was because I had these powers. But now with you standing by my side and calling me a friend… I think I can deal with them. Plus I’m freaking powerful, aren’t I?”

Phil laughed. “Yes you are. Stars, you’re adorable.”

And for seemingly, the 20th time that day, Dan and Phil froze.

“Uhh…” 

“Let’s just forget I said that. Oh look… there’s the bed. Good night Dan.” Phil quickly went into the bed and turned away from Dan.

Phil could feel Dan climb into the other side and turned away from him too.

“Phil?”

“Y-yea, Dan?”

“You’re pretty adorable too.”

Phil could have died happy at that very moment.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! This is a post for the Phandom Reverse Bang 2020 and I want to thank axolotlclown for the art and Kei for the beta read! Hope you guys enjoyed.


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